Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06CAIRO58
2006-01-03 17:12:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Cairo
Cable title:  

EGYPT: NO UNHCR ACCESS TO SUDANESE DETAINEES

Tags:  PREL PGOV PHUM PREF CASC EG SU UNHCR 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 000058 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR PRM/A, PRM/AFR, PRM/ANE, PRM/MCE
ROME FOR DHS/CIS
GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/02/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PREF CASC EG SU UNHCR
SUBJECT: EGYPT: NO UNHCR ACCESS TO SUDANESE DETAINEES

REF: JONES-DIBBLE E-MAILS

Classified by DCM Stuart Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 000058

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR PRM/A, PRM/AFR, PRM/ANE, PRM/MCE
ROME FOR DHS/CIS
GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/02/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PREF CASC EG SU UNHCR
SUBJECT: EGYPT: NO UNHCR ACCESS TO SUDANESE DETAINEES

REF: JONES-DIBBLE E-MAILS

Classified by DCM Stuart Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) UNHCR still has no access to the Sudanese being held
by the GOE in temporary camps following a violent
confrontation that occurred when GOE security forces ended
the Sudanese group's three month protest over refugee policy.
While the GOE has not formally declined UNHCR's access
request, the UNHCR assistant regional representative in Cairo
reports that the GOE is linking access to a new statement
from UNHCR in Geneva that backs away from the critical
comments Geneva made immediately following the violence. The
UNHCR regional representative was at the MFA late on January
3, but no report on that meeting is yet available. DCM and
other Emboffs have stressed with MFA and MOI Assistant
Ministers and other officials the importance of UNHCR access
to the Sudanese being held at temporary camps and the need to
coordinate deportations with UNHCR. Although the GOE
confirmed that at least 26 Sudanese refugee protesters died
in the incident, it has tried in public fora to highlight its
efforts to reach a negotiated solution to the impasse as well
as alleged efforts to avoid injuring women and children, who
represented a significant number of those killed. GOE
officials have also confirmed that they have detained the
Sudanese protesters in detention centers around Cairo and are
screening them to determine their legal status. We
understand from MOI sources that deportations may occur, but
not before consultation with the UNHCR. The Embassy learned
separately that an American dual citizen who worked for a
U.S.-based NGO was among the detainees. Egyptian State
Security sources said on January 2 that the man had been
released, but we have not heard from him. End summary.

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UNHCR lacks access to detainees
--------------


2. (C) UNHCR Assistant Resident Representative Damtew
Dessalegne told ECPO Counselor and Embassy Refugee
Coordinator January 3 that UNHCR's request for access to
detained Sudanese has still not been granted. UNHCR's
Ministry of Interior contacts, through whom UNHCR gained
access to Sudanese in Egyptian custody prior to the December
30 violence, have told UNHCR to make all further access
requests, including routine requests unrelated to the
December 30 incident via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to Dessalegne, the MFA is still smarting over UNHCR
Geneva's public criticism of the GOE's actions on December

30. Dessalegne says that Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit's Chef
de Cabinet, Wifaa Bassem, told Dessalegne not to call her
again about access to detainees until UNHCR Geneva has made a
public statement more to the GOE's liking. Dessalegne,
asking Emboffs to treat the information carefully, said that
the quid pro quo between access to detainees and a new UNHCR
statement was explicit. Dessalegne reported that UNHCR may
issue a new statement as early as January 3.


3. (C) Dessalegne said he could not confirm or deny rumors
that deportations have begun; MFA denies any deportations.
UNHCR Khartoum employees went to Khartoum airport January 2
in response to reports that 100 refugees were arriving on a
flight from Cairo. The reports turned out to be false.
According to Dessalegne, there were over 2,000 Sudanese in
the park when the GOE cleaned it out. Since then,
approximately 1,500 Sudanese have taken refuge at a Catholic
Church in Cairo. Dessalegne believes that many of these,
perhaps 1,000, were Sudanese at the park who had been
released from GOE custody once they showed Egyptian visas or
UNHCR refugee documents. Dessalegne had little to report on
the remaining detainees. The GOE told him that they had
recovered documents from the park and were reuniting those
documents with their owners in detention, releasing those who
are properly documented. As for the rest, UNHCR does not
know how many may still be in detention, where they are begin
held, or if some have been deported. UNHCR Resident
Representative Saad al-Attar was at the MFA late on January 3
but no report on his meetings there are yet available.


4. (SBU) On January 2, Attar told the diplomatic corps and
NGO representatives that GOE and Sudanese officials had made
numerous interventions to broker a peaceful solution to the
situation and said the UNHCR had sent the GOE three letters
asking for help in resolving the matter peacefully. Attar
also noted that UNHCR had no prior warning that MOI security
forces planned to try to remove the protesters. Attar said
that the UNHCR had not been able to confirm the number of
Sudanese killed, injured or detained in connection with the
incident.

--------------
MFA,MOI urged to provide access to refugees
--------------


5. (C) In January 2 and 3 conversations with MFA Assistant
Minister for Americas Affairs Ali Al Hefny, DCM underlined
the importance of providing UNHCR access to the Sudanese
being held in temporary camps. He also stressed that MFA
should coordinate closely with the MOI to ensure there would
be no deportations without consultations with the UNHCR. Ali
Hefny assured the DCM that the GOE is making efforts to
accommodate the UNHCR and said that he would coordinate
further with the MOI. Al Hefny also said that he believed
that there were approximately 300 Sudanese still held in
"temporary camps." He assured us there would be no
deporatations without UNHCR coordination.


6. (C) Also on January 2, Embassy Regional Security
Officer reinforced with senior staff at MOI the USG's concern
that the GOE grant UNHCR access to the Sudanese detainees.
MOI personnel said the GOE intends to deport illegals but
emphasized that the UNHCR would be part of this process.

--------------
GOE publicly defensive of incident
--------------


7. (C) The GOE has relied largely on the media to share its
side of the story about what happened on December 30,
emphasizing that it tried for months to negotiate a solution.
Officials also assert that they tried to remove women and
children from the occupied plot early to avoid injuring them.
Unfortunately, the situation escalated before this could
happen, and both women and children died.

-------------- --------------
Suzanne Mubarak learns of USG assistance to Sudan
-------------- --------------


8. (C) The Ambassador will meet with First Lady Suzanne
Mubarak on January 4 to discuss the Sudan asylum seeker
issue. In an introductory call by the Ambassador on November
23, Mrs. Mubarak described the substantial charity relief
work that she and her foundation have been conducting among
the Sudanese. She agonized over the dilemma between the
obligation that Egyptians felt to provide what relief they
could manage, despite Egypt,s own poverty, versus the more
fundamental need to "provide hope for these people" that they
could return to their lives in Sudan. Egypt,s goal, she
said, was to encourage the Sudanese to return to their home
country, or to find resettlement opportunities in third
countries, as quickly as possible. Mrs. Mubarak commended
what she had understood of U.S. assistance for Sudan and
Sudanese asylum seekers, though she appeared only partly
aware of the scope of the USG effort. (Note: We later
provided her a fact sheet on direct U.S. resettlement of
Sudanese refugees from Egypt; our support for UN and NGO
resettlement programs for Sudanese going to third countries;
our diplomacy to resolve Sudan,s internal conflicts; and USG
and private relief for Sudanese asylum seekers and economic
assistance to offer hope for them to return to Sudan. End
note.)

RICCIARDONE